Brochures Help Doctors, Patients Discuss Health Risks of Gun Ownership

NEW YORK CITY, August 1 - Hundreds of thousands of doctors believe handguns are a serious health risk akin to heart disease or diabetes, but aren???t accustomed to discussing the issue with patients. To help physicians break the ice, Doctors Against Handgun Injury (DAHI) is distributing free brochures nationwide that offer guidance on talking with patients about this critical health issue. DAHI has also produced a brochure for consumers, warning them of the health risks of keeping guns in the home and offering advice on safe gun storage. These brochures will be offered in doctors??? waiting rooms for patients to read and take home.

Both of the brochures -- the first of their kind -- are free and can be ordered by visiting the DAHI website at http://www.doctorsagainsthandguninjury.org/docs/orderform.pdf. This outreach effort marks DAHI???s push to encourage doctors to ask patients about their gun storage habits, and to ensure that patients are aware of simple precautions they can take to reduce the risk of death and injury. ???The brochures are intended to help minimize the risks of gun-related death and injury,??? said DAHI???s Executive Director, Sidra Gifford.

???With approximately 30,000 deaths per year and at least twice as many non-fatal injuries, clearly there is a need to empower physicians to engage in firearm injury prevention,??? said Gifford, who previously served as a firearm statistics specialist for the U.S. Department of Justice. ???There is also a great need to provide patients with general education on the risks of firearm ownership, which appear to outweigh the benefits.???

DAHI, a division of The New York Academy of Medicine, was founded in 2000 by Academy president Dr. Jeremiah A. Barondess. It is a coalition of 12 medical societies that contain 300,000 physicians, who agree that both physicians and the public must be better educated about the dangers of handgun ownership. The brochures will help to achieve this goal.

The brochure for physicians apprises them of the risk factors for firearm injury. On the front page is a picture of a gun in a hand, with a finger on the trigger, beneath the words: ???A Public Health Emergency.??? The brochure explains to doctors that patients are at risk if they keep a gun in the home, particularly if they also have: suicide warning signs (depression, extreme stress); a history of violence; children living in the home; or, are substance abusers. The brochure offers tips to doctors on counseling patients about gun safety without appearing to infringe upon gun-ownership rights.

It suggests that doctors should inform patients about the health risks of keeping a gun in the home by sharing sobering statistics. Among those mentioned: keeping a gun in the home triples the risk of homicide and increases the risk of suicide five-fold; and, firearms are the second leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults. Finally, doctors are advised to tell patients that if they choose to keep a gun at home, it should be kept unloaded in a locked location, and ammunition should be stored and locked separately.

The consumer brochure is designed to help patients minimize the risks of handgun injury to themselves and their families. On the cover are photos of parents with their young children, beneath the words, ???Is Your Family Safe???? The publication stresses that the risks of storing a gun in the home outweigh any benefit. The easy-to-read brochure urges patients to: keep the gun unloaded; use a trigger lock or gun safe designed to prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to the weapon; store the gun and the ammunition in separate, locked locations; and, remove guns from a home where depressed individuals or children can use them.

Too often guns are kept in the home for protection but end up being used by suicidal adolescents or adults (the most common firearm deaths are suicides), or are accidentally fired by children, some as young as 2 years old. A recent report by the David and Lucille Packard Foundation provides conclusive evidence that teaching children firearm safety is not enough. They will find them, and they will play with them ??? the result is that about 10 kids die each day. That is why guns must be kept unloaded and locked.

Physicians are increasingly being urged to counsel patients about firearm safety in the home, Gifford said. But research indicates that fewer than 20 percent of the nation???s doctors engage in preventive counseling, even though nearly 90 percent of physicians categorize firearm injury as a public health issue. ???That may be because doctors don???t know how to begin the conversation,??? Gifford said. ???These brochures are designed to help fill that gap.??? In the future DAHI plans to evaluate the impact of these brochures on gun ownership patterns and storage behavior.

Doctors can order 100-packs of patient brochures, and single brochures for clinicians, by visiting the DAHI website. Funding for the brochures was provided by the Joyce Foundation.

The New York Academy of Medicine is a non-profit organization founded in 1847 that is dedicated to enhancing the health of the public through research, education and advocacy, with a particular focus on disadvantaged urban populations.

Posted on August 2, 2002

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Andrew J. Martin
Director of Communications
The New York Academy of Medicine
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amartin@nyam.org

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